Transpatial Identity, Community-Building, and Proto-State Media Systems

Chapter 4 focuses on how and why al-Qaeda and ISIS infuse the narratives in their media products with spatial references. It begins by highlighting the need for the two proto-states to secure land to accommodate their communities—a matter that results in the simultaneous challenge of defining state sovereignty by negation and affirmation. It then shows how the two groups respond by utilizing patterned, transpatial scenic depictions to negate national identities and affirm their new global imaginaries. It reveals how the groups infuse both individual and group character depictions with transpatial meanings in ways that highlight and resolve ongoing, space-related controversies in line with proto-state interests. It concludes by assessing how al-Qaeda and ISIS develop the theme of spatial control to legitimize their group as the appropriate alternative to lead their envisioned collectives.